174 SCIENTIFIC LABORS OF EDWARD LARTET. 



were complete — four incisors, two canines, four false molars, six molars; 

 in all, sixteen teeth in a continuous series — tlie dental formula of man 

 and of some monkeys. 



M. Lartet comprehended immediately the importance of the discovery 

 of the monkey of Sansan, and the influence it would have upon the prog- 

 ress of paleontology. "We have here," said he, "a mammal of the fam- 

 ily of monkeys, contemporaneous with the paheotherium and the ano- 

 plotherium, extinct genera long considered the most ancient inhabitants 

 of our continents. Types of certain genera are not, then, so recent as 

 has been generally supposed. Perhaps sooner or later fnrther observa- 

 tion may teach us that this ancient system of nature, still so little known, 

 was neither less complete nor less advanced in the organic scale than 

 that in which we live. M. Lartet's communication produced quite a 

 sensation in the Institute, and excited a discussion the interest of which 

 may be appreciated when we recollect that at this time Cuvier's " Re- 

 searches on Fossil Bones" formed the alpha and omega of the paleontol- 

 ogy of vertebrates. 



Cnvier, after a critical examination of the bones of men and of mon- 

 keys supposed to be contemporary with extinct species, proved that they 

 were not authentic. He then remarks upon the tardy appearance of the 

 monkey and man. It is astonishing, he says, that among all these 

 mammalia, the larger number of which have living representatives in 

 warm climates, not a bone or tooth of a monkey has been found. No 

 trace whatever of man — all the bones of the human species hitherto dis- 

 covered among the fossils were placed there accidentally. In thus as- 

 sociating the time of the appearance of man with that of the monkey 

 Cnvier gave great eclat to the happy discovery of the monkey of Sansan, 

 as it was very probable that the discovery of the fossil monkey would 

 be followed by that of the fossil man. 



The caution of Cnvier in regard to the antiquity of man has been in 

 these latter days singularly exaggerated. Instead of blame he ought to 

 receive praise for the i^recision of his researches, the most im})ortant 

 result of which has been to compel the supi)orters of the antiquity of 

 man to bring forward positive and multiplied proofs in support of their 

 hyiiothesis instead of premature assertions. It would be well if some 

 of the advocates of tertiary man had possessed a smaU portion of the 

 critical acumen which was one of the most important characteristics of 

 the mind of Cnvier. 



Blainville, who prepared the report of the communication of M. Lartet, 

 agreed with him, after the examination of the jaw, in the opinion that 

 it had belonged to a monkey of the old world — a monkey sui)erior in 

 degree, and that no living species was identical with it. From the above 

 conclasion'3 he proceeded to the discussion of trivial and unimportant 

 points of anatomy. He regarded paleontology merely as a description 

 of fo^5sil animals compared with their living representatives. The idea 

 of a gaccession of living beings in order of time; of the diversity of 



